Environmental Responsibility

“USFloors’ commitment is to provide consumers and specifiers with beautiful and durable floors at a good value, while minimizing our impact on the environment and enhancing and improving it whenever possible.”

In addition USFloors specifies proprietary Moso6® Premium Mature 6 Year Moso Bamboo for it’s Natural Bamboo floors. As the bamboo stalk matures, it becomes more dense and the hardness increases exponentially with each passing year. By specifying 6 year mature bamboo such as Moso6, USFloors ensures that your Natural Bamboo floor will perform to it’s maximum potential, meeting your expectations of performance and durability. You can rest assured, that a bamboo floor made from immature bamboo will provide a disappointing experience for your flooring investment.

Always ask your retailer for the years of maturity of the bamboo floor at harvest.

Lacey Act Compliance

In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed the Lacey Act prohibiting the import of illegally harvested wood and wood products into the United States. This groundbreaking legislation set a precedent for the global trade in wood flooring and other wood related products. This law leads the way in supporting other countries’ efforts to govern their own natural resources and ensures that only legally logged timber for flooring is sold into the United States. The Lacey Act puts in place powerful incentives for timber producing countries such as China, Russia, and Honduras to trade in wood products that come from legally logged sources or risk paying huge penalties. All products sold by USFloors, Inc. are Lacey Act compliant.

Reducing our environmental and energy footprint

USFloors will be applying for LEED Certification for its manufacturing facility in Dalton, GA. The process to LEED certify an existing facility is a much more stringent and lengthy process than for a new building. Some of the steps which USFloors is currently or will be undertaking towards this goal:

- Solar photovoltaic panels have been installed on the rooftops of the multiple USFloors facilities generating over 1/2 MegaWatt of energy making USFloors one the largest solar energy harvesters in Georgia.
– All dust created in the manufacturing process is collected in containment silos and re-used as waste-to-energy fuel
– All lights in the facility have been replaced with energy efficient T5 lights and are managed by a zone-control system that automatically turns off lights when not in use.
– All of our air compressors have “soft” start switches which reduce stress on the electric grid.
– Cork and bamboo flooring are installed as floating floors in office areas eliminating the use of glues
– Existing toilets are being replaced with low flow toilets to reduce water usage.
– Trash in all facilities is sorted and recycled.

Creating Better Indoor Air Quality

USFloors Natural Bamboo, Natural Cork and COREtec Plus products are third-party certified by UL’s Greenguard Environmental Institute as GREENGUARD GOLD, satisfy LEED credits for EQ: Low Emitting Floors, AND meet the European E0 Standard, a strict test that measures the amount of formaldehyde in a product. Formaldehyde can be found in the glues and adhesives used to make bamboo and cork floors, but USFloors specifies zero to low formladehyde content in all of its Natural Bamboo and Natural Cork floors to exceed health standards established in the United States, Europe, and Japan. 100% formaldehyde-free products are our ultimate goal. In addition, HDF core boards used for our floors have no added formaldehyde.

The state of California, in an effort to create a healthier breathing environment, has enacted new limits for formaldehyde emitted from composite wood products, including hardwood flooring. Prior to January 2009, 0.20 parts per million emission of formaldehyde was permitted. Beginning January 2009, 0.18 ppm became the standard with final limits in place by 2012 at 0.09 ppm. The California Air Resources Board (CARB), a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency, reviewed and implemented the new acceptable rating and is often the reference for this new standard. All products sold by USFloors, Inc. are CARB compliant.

Promoting Green Building

USFloors is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and most of USFloors’ products contribute to 1 or more credits in the USGBC LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.

Through our own example, USFloors promotes the green building not only for new construction, but in the remodeling of existing buildings to lessen their environmental impact.